1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system, a method, and a program able to make use of various digital content using a portable electronic device such as a mobile phone or handheld video game console.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of a variety of portable electronic devices that are physically carried around by users is becoming more widespread. Such devices include mobile phones, portable music players, and handheld video game consoles. Such portable electronic devices are capable of using digital content at any time by accessing a content delivery server and downloading a variety of target digital content, such as music data, in advance. A portable electronic device may access a content delivery server directly if the device is provided with communications functions, or via a personal computer if the device is not provided with communications functions.
In addition, not only is digital content downloaded from a content delivery server, but a variety of digital content may also be transferred from a personal computer to a portable electronic device, the digital content in this case being saved on a recording medium provided in the personal computer or on a recording medium that has been loaded into the personal computer.
However, searching for target digital content from among a large amount of digital content and then downloading the target digital content to a portable electronic device can take considerable effort and time. For this reason, JP-A-2006-148284 discloses technology that automatically allows a user's preferred digital content to be used on a portable music player or portable media player. In order to do so, digital content usage history is retrieved for a portable music player or portable media player, and according to the digital content usage history, digital content that matches the user's preferences is automatically readied for use by being recorded on a recording medium housed inside the portable music player or portable media player.